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Yes, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, which went on to win Golden Globes and earn Oscar buzz, faced a serious roadblock: it was banned in China. The main culprit? A subplot about Chinese criminals buying military equipment—a storyline that didn’t sit well with the country’s censors.
According to sources from The Hollywood Reporter and Reuters, the Chinese government wasn’t thrilled with the plotline involving Beijing’s interest in acquiring fake missile-guidance microprocessors. One anonymous source pointed out, “They can talk about Iran or Iraq, but there’s no reason to get China in.” The refusal to change this part of the plot sealed the movie’s fate in China. A source within the Chinese film regulatory board revealed that the decision was about more than just the violence. The subplot seemed “unnecessary” to them and politically sensitive, especially when it involved the Chinese government.
But this wasn’t the first time Scorsese’s work clashed with China. In 1997, Kundun, a biographical drama about the Dalai Lama, also faced major pushback, leading to a public apology from Disney’s CEO at the time. This set the stage for Hollywood’s tricky relationship with China, where content has often been tailored or outright altered to suit the country’s strict censorship laws.
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As for The Departed, the ban had significant implications. Although pirated versions of the film were widely available, it still marked a missed opportunity for Warner Bros. to capitalize on the booming Chinese market. At the time, China had become an essential part of Hollywood’s global box office strategy, and this ban highlighted the growing influence of the Chinese government in shaping which films could be shown to its massive population.
Executives at Media Asia, the film’s distributor in China, were hopeful that negotiations would resolve the issue. However, the movie’s violence and political themes were simply too much for the country’s censors. The movie featured intense scenes of bloodshed, and the subplot about military procurement was deemed inappropriate for Chinese viewers. “It’s difficult to edit all those violent scenes out,” a film bureau spokesman admitted, underscoring how the film’s content was incompatible with the censors’ standards.
Despite the ban, The Departed had a massive impact. It not only swept major awards, including Golden Globes, but also marked a pivotal moment in Scorsese’s career. But for Chinese audiences, the film’s absence from theaters was a significant loss, especially given its high-profile cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson.
The fallout from The Departed wasn’t just about one film—it symbolized Hollywood’s broader struggle to navigate the censorship and political sensitivities of the Chinese market. From editing storylines to reworking entire scenes, studios have learned that China’s movie regulations can shape the global success of major releases.
In the end, The Departed became a reminder that while films might be universal, not all stories can cross borders unscathed. For Scorsese, it was another battle in his long-standing career of pushing boundaries, even when those boundaries were set by powerful global forces.
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